Chapter 301: Room 204, Mission Room – ‘Hotel Cinema’ (23)

– Lee Eunsol

It was sweet and refreshing. The thick flavor surpassed the finest wine, and the invigorating power that filled the entire body was incomparable to any energy drink.

I was talking about blood.

Unable to overcome the violent impulse boiling up from within, I ended up drinking the blood stored in the abandoned house. Amusingly, the hotel party’s experience of occasionally drinking Ahri’s blood when needed comforted me.

Honestly, I can drink human blood to this extent! Right? Let’s consider it okay since I’ve already drunk it.

As the drops of blood rolled down my throat, through my esophagus, and reached my stomach, the hunger and thirst slowly subsided. Of course, this was just a temporary measure.

For a man-eating monster, blood was, metaphorically speaking, like rice porridge. When one was starving, one needed to eat even porridge to regain strength, but humans couldn’t live on porridge alone for a lifetime. Eventually, “meat” was needed.

“Saerom.”

“Unni?”

“I’ll ask just one question.”

“What is it?”

“Why do you want to become human?”

“…”

“Gumihos have very long lifespans, right? Humans live at most 100 years. Even the beautiful and glamorous looks don’t last long after becoming human. At best 10 years? Maybe 20 years with good skincare these days? Even so, it’s short compared to a gumiho’s life.”

“…”

“Your magical powers will weaken greatly, too. It’s not that humans can’t use mysterious powers, but it’s close to just remnants compared to when you were a gumiho.”

“It’s interesting and enviable that you even have such a question about why we want to become human.”

“What?”

“It means that the current you is getting closer to being human.”

The fact that I had such doubts means I had become closer to being human?

It was difficult to understand what she meant. Saerom carefully observed my confused expression and began to explain step by step, as if dealing with a young child.

“There’s a difficult explanation and an easy explanation.”

“Tell me the difficult one first.”

“Have you heard of the term ‘First Cause Theory’?”

“Isn’t that a concept from Christian theology?”

“They say Aristotle was the first to bring it up. Everything has a cause that makes it exist. That cause has another cause. In this way, as we trace back cause after cause, there is a first cause, a cause that has no ‘preceding cause’. That’s the idea.”

“I know it as a logic used to prove the existence of God, like ‘That First Cause is God!’”

“That’s right. The First Cause Theory states that if you logically trace back the causes of all things, there is a first cause that has no cause preceding it, and with just a little thought, it’s very similar to the concept of a monotheistic god. Of course, neither you nor I, being monsters that eat people, are trying to talk about God or anything.”

Saerom calmly ate a piece of red meat. For a moment, my heart skipped a beat, but I just sighed once.

“They say the First Cause of humans discovered by natural science is genes. All human behaviors and impulses, if you trace their causes endlessly, are contained in the human blueprint written in genes. Then, what is the First Cause of monsters?”

“…”

“It would be the folktales and legends that created us. So, to explain your question of, ‘Why do you want to become human?’ if we use the First Cause Theory, we could answer, “Because gumihos in folktales are such beings,” or “Because humans defined us that way.’”

“Because humans defined gumihos that way…”

“There’s an easy explanation, too. It’s just because we want to. That’s all.”

I felt dazed.

I had never been interested in how monsters think of themselves while living as a human all my life. To begin with, this conversation itself was strange.

Can such plausible stories come out of a monster’s mouth?

“No, where did you hear words like First Cause Theory? Do they teach these things in high schools these days?”

Saerom opened her eyes wide as if to say, “What are you talking about?” and answered with a confident expression, “Unni! I’m a woman who graduated from Ewha Womans University.”

“…”

I was at a loss for words at the solid logic of this Ewha graduate gumiho—no, seven-tailed fox.

Late at night, I left the abandoned house and wandered through shabby alleys in the darkness. Was it because I had drunk a lot of blood? As my hunger and thirst had subsided considerably, I could think rationally.

Talking with Saerom until this hour, I realized.

Gumihos, these creatures, these monsters, were not without love. Rather, it was the opposite. With only a handful of their kind in the world and spending long years together, their relationships were more affectionate than human families.

Yes, honestly, I thought the affection Saerom had for me now might be greater than the combined affection of all my real family members for each other.

Realizing this, a question arose in my heart about whether the “decision” I had made earlier was really appropriate.

Just as humans ate pigs, gumihos ate humans.

Was there room for human morality to intervene here? Even if tigers or lions harmed humans, humans didn’t discuss the evil of tigers and lions.

Of course, that didn’t mean they let them live either.

I entered the abandoned house silently. Perhaps because there were no watching eyes, Saerom had transformed into a fox and was sleeping like a cute puppy. As I sat down next to her, the seven-tailed fox nuzzled against me and burrowed in.

Slowly regulating my breathing, I informed the “outside companions”.

Outside companions.

Especially Seungyub, Ahri, and Kain who had to proceed after me.

I’m sorry. I just can’t kill and eat 28 ordinary people.

I was well aware that all of this was just a movie. Maybe it would be right to kill and eat 28 people as if dealing with game characters. But… once I actually came in, I just couldn’t think that way. If I had known it would be like this, should I have played more games outside?

I give up!

I can’t bring myself to eat people, and I don’t know any other way to become human. At least, according to the gumiho’s knowledge, there is no other way.

But I’m not saying I’ll commit suicide meaninglessly. I’ll try to find out what I can before I go. I’m sorry.

My right hand turned pitch black and my nails hardened like obsidian.

I reached out and slowly stroked the fox’s back, then gently grasped an appropriate part. Saerom, mistaking that I was petting her, nuzzled against me.

– Crack!

…The time of pain wouldn’t have been long.

Grandpa Mooksung already showed us by dying from being hit with a fire extinguisher, right? Even a gumiho wasn’t particularly physically tough unless they used special mysterious powers.

It took less than 5 seconds for the breath to stop of the girl who had dreamed of becoming human while eating hundreds of people in the darkness of civilization over a long time, the Ewha graduate gumiho.

I thought as I walked through the shabby alley.

Will the information I was trying to find out from now on be transmitted to my companions as it was? Unlike previous movies, the horror movie was real-time for those inside, but the companions outside saw an edited version.

With a structure of four short films in one movie, each short film would be at most 40 minutes long. Most of what I had done would be edited out, and my companions would probably only be able to see about 30-40 minutes at most.

There was a good chance that the conversation I had with Saerom at home earlier was just omitted. They probably only showed the moment I killed Saerom.

Therefore, I needed to act flamboyantly. I needed to create a highlight, a scene that absolutely couldn’t be omitted.

“I’ll have to cause a bit of trouble.”

As I came out of the alley and arrived at a bustling area, a building with lots of lights still on at this hour came into view.

Are they still working overtime? That’s perfect.

As I confidently entered the building, the security guard immediately tried to stop me.

“Oh? At this hour, what—“

“Is it not allowed?”

“…Please come in.”

The gumiho’s unique hypnosis became easier once I started using it.

“Daewoong Corporation? The building is really nice and big! But working employees until this hour! I should teach them a lesson, right?”

My legs turned pitch black and filled with strength that could crush rocks in one blow.

– Bang!

“Come here!”

The moment the office door burst open, chaos erupted inside!

“Eek!”

“W-what? What kind of crazy bastard?”

“A-a female student? What is security doing—“

Now it begins.

Sitting on the building’s rooftop, I held out a wine glass. The middle-aged man with graying hair, President Cha Jinun, who was dazed by the sudden intrusion of a gumiho into the office, filled the glass while trembling.

“Hey.”

“Y-Yes!”

“Who am I?”

“You are the great Lady Gumiho!”

The man across, Director Kim, muttered tactlessly, “W-what kind of monster is this!?”

“You! Come here and kneel!”

“I-I’m sorry!”

“Do you know why I’m scolding you?”

The president and director, honestly, I didn’t know why such a small company had such detailed ranks, but the two men started blurting out anything while trembling.

“Because we couldn’t answer the fox’s question well…”

– Thud!

“Hey!”

“Urgh!”

“Am I crazy? Do you think I’d make you kneel and punish you just because you couldn’t answer my question well?”

“W-we’re sorry!”

“Hey! Manager Kim!”

“Yes!”

“Have you ever received overtime pay?”

“…”

“Wow! I knew it! Earlier, Employee Cha said the same thing, you haven’t received overtime pay either?”

“…”

“If there’s anything else strange, tell me. Noona will scold the president for you.”

I had long since stopped hiding my nine tails.

Manager Kim, who started to look dazed seeing desks flying through the air and people collapsing with just a gesture, spoke with a somewhat enlightened expression, “The elevator.”

“What?”

“Employees are forbidden to use the elevator. I started using it from last year. By the way, the office is on the 7th floor.”

For a moment, I was so dumbfounded that I gestured to the director.

“Hey, Director.”

“…”

“I’m really curious, why don’t you let them use the elevator?”

“…Shouldn’t there be a hierarchy in the company? And there are only two elevators—“

“Hey, you just keep lying down. Before I break your neck.”

While the director silently laid down, another employee across spoke up, “I-I’m an employee who joined last year?”

“And?”

“I… I was good at studying.”

“Good job.”

“So the president makes me tutor his children every weekend.”

“…And the tutoring fee?”

“He just says he’ll pay later…”

“Aoh! Hey, President Cha!”

“Y-yes, Lady Fox!”

“When are you going to pay the tutoring fee?”

“I-I’ve recorded everything. Before resignation—“

– Thud!

“Aaagh!”

“Not before resignation, you idiot! Tutoring fees should be paid now! You, transfer the money in front of me. You have your phone!”

“I-I’m sorry…”

“He made me move his house, too!”

“The department head keeps trying to touch my thighs!”

What kind of company is this? I just came in to act a bit rowdy, but what kind of fucked up company is this? Is this the reality of K corporations?

But… come to think of it, didn’t the Daeyang Group’s owner family, that is, our family, make people do quite a lot of these things too? What was it that Father used to say to his children?

Make the underlings fight among themselves. You should always act like mediators between them.

“…”

I’m sorry. To the employees in reality, I’ll apologize on behalf of Father.

Around that time, an employee who had gone outside finally brought a box full of fireworks.

“Let’s get ready!”

“…Are you really going to set off all of these?”

“Yes.”

“I-in the middle of Seoul, in the middle of the night, on the rooftop, this many fireworks?”

“You, what do I look like to you?”

“…A gumiho.”

“Right. And you think setting off some fireworks is a problem?”

“I guess not.”

“You guys bring up the fireworks. And President Cha!”

“Y-yes!”

“Report it!”

“What?”

“Report to the police or the Vatican, you idiot. Tell them a gumiho is going crazy and ask for help!”

“…”

As I set up fireworks that filled boxes all around, I thought.

No matter how hopeless the movie is, they can’t omit the moment these go off. This moment will definitely appear on the screen my companions are watching.

“Set off the fireworks.”

“…Understood.”

In a world where there was an exorcism group, the Vatican, that eliminates monsters, if a man-eating gumiho went crazy, of course there would be movements to punish it.

So I decided to show my companions one last thing before dying. The trial of The Tale of a 21st Century Gumiho, the exorcism squad that eliminates gumihos!

– Wheee! Bang! Shhhh! Bang!

Amidst the tremendous fireworks brilliantly coloring the dark night sky, I stretched out my hand. The light extending from my fingertips created huge letters in the night sky.